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President Barack Obama, who will sign an executive order stopping federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT, spoke at an LGBT DNC fundraiser at Gotham Hall in New York City and encourage the crowd to continue to pressure Congress to pass ENDA.

Not only have the Log Cabin Republicans taken out full-page ads about DOMA, the organization is simultaneously fighting another battle—the nomination of defense secretary Chuck Hagle. The group’s interim leader Gregory T. Angelo went on, of all places, Fox News and attempted to explain their position.

Check out the interview after the jump to see why the Log Cabin’s don’t want Hagel….

While the Log Cabin Republicans nonsensically favored an anti-LGBT president, they have now begun choosing to spend their organization’s money recently in a positive way. Today, they bought a full-page ad in The Hill asking Republicans to support gay and lesbian marriage and oppose the Defense of Marriage Act. However, their conservative positions concerning taxes, healthcare, and other social issues continue to undermine the future of America.

Log Cabin Republicans applauds those Republican Members of Congress who have signed on to the Respect for Marriage Act and urges other Republicans to follow their lead. To be the party of limited government, individual liberty, and fiscal responsibility, the Republican Party must stop standing in the way of caring adults building a family and a life together. A full 53 percent of Americans now support the freedom to marry. It’s time for Republicans to stop spending taxpayer money defending DOMA and start defending the right of ALL Americans to pursue happiness with the person they love.

While the majority of Americans are displeased with the work of Congress, we can be proud of one thing today—we’ve sworn in our first openly gay senator. Tammy Baldwin was sworn as the junior senator from Wisconsin after winning the November 6 election. “I’m very aware that I will have the honor to be the first woman senator from Wisconsin,” Baldwin said in her acceptance speech on election night. “And I’m well aware that I will be the first openly gay member of the United States Senate.”

It’s been one hell of a year. We’ve seen it all—both good and bad. And for this week, we’re reminding you of all the moments that have changed the travel world and the LGBT world—our world.

Image via Facebook.

Not only did the United States make history last night by re-electing the country’s first black president, but for the first time in the nation’s history voters in four states voted in favor of marriage equality. The votes in Maine, Washington, and Maryland show that gay and lesbian couples will soon be able to get married and gay and lesbian families will be officially recognized. Also, the Midwest state of Minnesota overwhelmingly voted no to a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a partnership between one man and one woman.

We also made history as a community when voters in Wisconsin elected Tammy Baldwin to the United States Senate. Making her the first gay US Senator in history.

Watch President Obama and Tammy Baldwin’s historic victory speeches after the jump…

Election 2012 may have changed the LGBT community’s place in politics. According to Gallup and UCLA Law’s Williams Institute, the gay and lesbian vote for Obama was large enough that it made a big difference in who was elected president. The study shows that Obama and Romney won an equal share of white straight voters, with Romney winning more straight voters in Ohio and Florida. And according to the New York Times:

Mr. Obama’s more than three-to-one edge in exit polls among the 5 percent of voters who identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual was more than enough to give him the ultimate advantage…The results are consistent with earlier research on the number and political beliefs of gay voters.

Democrats have been winning big over Republicans among gay voters, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and Jews. Some of the groups are relatively small, but together they make up about one-third of the electorate, forcing Republicans to capture much of the remaining two-thirds to win elections. By comparison, white evangelical voters, who vote overwhelmingly for Republicans, make up about one-fourth of the electorate, and their numbers are not growing as rapidly.

As with Latinos and Asian-Americans, the number of voters who say they are gay appears to be growing. Only 1.9 percent of Americans over 65 call themselves gay, lesbian or bisexual, according to the Gallup survey, while 3.2 percent of those between 30 and 49, and 6.4 percent of those between 18 and 29 do.

While Republicans came out hard (and failed) to woo the Latino vote, the New York Times questions if the difference that LGBT voters made in the 2012 election is enough for the Grand Ole’ Party to come out and fight for the gay and lesbian vote in 2016.

It was a too-close-to-call race in the new Phoenix–area congressional district, but finally former Democratic state Sen. Krysten Sinema can breathe a sigh of relief—she was recently proclaimed the winner after a fierce, multi-million-dollar race against Republican Vernon Parker. With a 6,000-vote lead, Krysten Sinema is also making history. She is now the first elected, openly bisexual member of the US Congress. This historic election brings at least five openly gay Democrats to elected House seats as well as the first openly lesbian woman to the Senate. [StarTribune]

We were glued to Rachel Maddow’s coverage of the election on Tuesday night. The openly lesbian, tell-it-like-it-is newscaster was being super-professional/unbiased during her coverage on NBC, but behind that well-makeupped face, we know she was biting her tongue. So, we couldn’t wait to hear what she would have to say about the outcome the morning and after…and it’s good:

If the Republican party, and the conservative movement, and the conservative media is stuck in a vacuum sealed, door locked, spin cycle of telling each other what makes them feel good, and denying the factual, lived truth of the world, then we are all deprived, as a nation, of the constructive debate between competing, feasible ideas about real problems.

As more and more definitive winners are announced from Tuesday’s election, we continue to get more and more good news worthy of celebration in the LGBT community. While New Hampshire was wavering blue and red for most of the night (spoiler: it went to Barack Obama), the state also voted to elect Stacie Laughton, the Granite State’s first transgender lawmaker. Laughton, who beat out two Republicans, will serve in the state’s House of Representatives in Ward 4. She isn’t the first from the LGBT community to be elected, Rep. Ray Buckley was the first openly gay legislator all the way back in 1986. But, Laughton hopes that he election will inspire others in the transgender community to follow their dreams: “My hope is that now maybe we’ll see more people in the community running, maybe for alderman,” she said. “We are people, too, who still have talents and ideas. And I hope that people won’t be afraid to get into politics, or any other position, for that matter. I want the community to feel inspired.” [HuffPo]

The leading market research company for the LGBT community, Community Marketing and Insights, released a study about the 2012 Election, and the results conclude exactly what we expect from the LGBT community. With a sample of 6,625 LGBT voters from all 50 states, the survey found that 90% supported Barack Obama, 6% voted Mitt Romney, and 4% were going against the grain and voting for a third-party candidate. While most of us suspected that Obama would carry the LGBT vote, a more interesting finding from the study showed that 95% of those sampled said that were planning on voting (or already had via early voting)—a stark difference from the national average (2008 56.8% voted).